


Earth and Fire

by jokerswild



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Durin Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Mama Dis, but that's okay, earth bender!fili, fire bender!kili, ori is too young to figure out his element
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-02-13
Packaged: 2018-01-12 06:51:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jokerswild/pseuds/jokerswild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a Middle Earth where the people can control the elements, all young Kili wants is to know which one he can bend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Earth and Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a reference I figure Kili is about 10/11 here while Fili would be 13/14. I know that's not a five year difference but dwarf ages are different that human ages and figuring out the difference is hard man.

Kili flopped down in the shade at the base of the old ash tree, watching his brother and Mister Dwalin practicing their bending in the training yard, sweating from the heat of the sun and their sparring. There were rocks flying all over the place, since both dwarves are earth benders, but they mostly seem to be coming from Mister Dwalin while Fili was either dodging or deflecting rocks back at the older dwarf.

It looked like hard work but he couldn't stop himself from being a little jealous.

Ever since Fili discovered his element five years ago, protecting his younger brother from a rock that a bully had thrown no less, he was treated as an adult. _Fili_ got to train in the practice yard with Mister Dwalin, _Fili_ got to work with Uncle in the forge and make his own money. _Fili_ even got to go on a diplomatic trip to the neighboring town with Balin too.

All the while Kili had to stay home with their mama because he was _too young for such things_. He wasn't old enough to work in the forge or make his own money. He was too young to train with Mister Dwalin and worst of all, he wasn't even old enough to know what his element was. Even though every day for the past five years he's tried moving small stones like Fili had but every day they remained motionless.

He would just have to try harder.

The young dwarf is brought out of his musings when he hears a deep rumbling chuckle coming from the practice yard. It seems that Fili managed to land one of his clumps of dirt squarely in the middle of Dwalin's wide chest. His brother looks afraid but the chuckle seems to relax him some, the hardy slap on his shoulder that nearly knocks him forward into the dirt making him smile.

At first neither of the dwarves in the training yard see him until Fili happens to look up and see his younger brother sitting under the tree. Kili desperately wants for the blonde to come over and maybe go out adventuring in the woods and for a second it looks like Fili is going to come over but Dwalin places one big hand between the Prince's shoulder blades, guiding him back to the forge.

There's a sad smile on Fili's face as he waves at Kili, a wave that is both hello and goodbye.

The youngest Durin waits until both his brother and Dwalin are gone before he moves from the shade of the tree. He takes his time going back home, dragging his heels in the dry summer dirt so he doesn't have to do _child's_ work with his mama. What he would give to be going to the forge with the rest of his kin.

A long suffering sigh escapes him as he reaches for the knob on the front door, pushing it open gently and taking off his boots as he steps inside. He's been made to clean up his own mess plenty of times to know that it's not fun washing the dirt and mud from the wood floors.

There's a faint sweet smell in the air, his mother must be starting on the apple pastries for dessert tonight. Which means that he's going to have to help her roll the dough or slice apples or some other busy work for _children_.

“I almost didn't hear you come in,” Dis teases a little when she hears her youngest son plop into a chair at their table. Truthfully her sons were louder than a storming heard of oliphants most days and even alone Kili seemed to be able to make enough noise for both him and his absent brother.

And didn't that just break her heart to see them split up when they had always been together. _Soon_ , she reminded herself. Soon both of her children would be working in the forge and she would go back to her leather work. While she love both Fili and Kili dearly, she missed her craft.

Dis doesn't ask about where Kili has been, by the way he's moping he had been to the training yard to watch Dwalin and Fili again. Instead she rinses the flour off of her hands, tucks a few loose strands of black hair back into the pony tail at the base of her neck, and kisses her youngest son's head. When she places a small basket of apples on the table in front of him and a knife for him to slice them with, she thinks she's going to have to fight him to cut the apples for her. Instead he gives a long dramatic sigh and takes the knife in one hand and an apple in another, accepting his fate.

“You'll be training with them soon,” she assures him.

“Not soon enough,” he mumbles as he starts to peel an apple. All Dis can do is shake her head, kids always wanted to grow up too fast but when they got to be her age, her sons would wish for these days back.

Its quiet for a time, Kili steadily making his way through the apples while she kneads the dough and portions it out for the pastries before she starts to roll it out.

“Mama will Fili become a miner?” He asks, breaking the silence.

“A miner? What makes you think he would become a miner?” She asks, amused by the image of Thorin's face if Fili ever announced that he wanted to be a miner.

“Don't a lot of earth benders become miners?”

“Yes many of them find a great satisfaction in working gems and precious metals from the rock. There are others like Mister Dwalin who become warriors and there are others still that take their time in their training and become-”

“Jewelers!” Her youngest son interrupts and she glares over her shoulder at him in reprimand.

“Yes, they become jewelers. They spend years learning how to carefully work the precious gems until they are shaped perfectly and shine like the stars themselves.” Dis nods as she speaks and works the dough out to the perfect thickness.

“Will Fili be a jeweler then?” Kili asks a little more interested.

“No sweet khuzdith, your brother is your Uncle's heir so in time, Fili will be King. The first earth bending King in an age, but a King none the less.” She replies and turns to rinse the flour off her hands again, sitting opposite of Kili at the table and watching him finish the last few apples.

“Can an earth bender be in charge of the armies?” He asks as he peels the apple in his hand before he starts to slice it.

“Of course, that's what Mister Dwalin does as your Uncle's right hand. Why do you ask?”

“Because I'm going to be an earth bender too and if Fili is going to be King then I get to be in charge of the army,” Kili decrees, sure that it's going to happen and soon. What he doesn't see is the slight frown on his mother's face as she tries to decide between reminding her son that the children of Durin are almost always fire benders and letting him believe that he and his brother will be the same.

“You both will be great, I have no doubt of that,” Dis says instead. It wasn't _impossible_ that Kili would be an earth bender too, about as likely as Smaug just leaving Erebor of his own free will, but there was still a tiny chance.

The rest of the day is spent making the pastries and letting Kili have _one_ before his Uncle and brother come home from the forge.

A few days later and Kili is sitting with young Ori on a log next to a stream, both of them kicking their feet in the water while Ori tells him a story that his older brother Nori told him last time he was back.

He liked playing with Ori in the woods, even if they were aren't allowed to go as far as he and Fili did because Dori worried, but it was nice being with someone who was too young to bend too. They could talk about what kind of benders they were going to be when they did finally get their elements or not talk about it at all.

Today is the latter, Kili doesn't want to talk about benders or even think about how it's just him and Ori out here. Things were always more fun with Fili since the princes didn't have to worry about what Dori would say if they came home wet and covered in mud from playing in the stream.

“And he was gone,” Ori pauses to snap his fingers, “just like that!” He finishes excitedly as Kili just stares wide eyed at the other dwarfling. Nori's adventures were always interesting and it seemed like he was barely getting away just in time whether he was escaping guards or other thieves that wanted his loot. A few of the stories had to be made up, it wouldn't surprise the young prince, but at least they were always exciting.

“Hey how did you do that?” The brunette asks as he tilts his head.

“What, this?” Ori asks as he snaps again, and Kili nods fervently, “oh that's easy! You just put your fingers together like this, and then press your finger to your thumb and move them like this!” He instructs as the brunette tries for himself. It takes a few attempts and a little more coaching before Kili finally manages a decent snap of his fingers and immediately yelps and both dwarflings fall back off the log and into the dirt.

“Can you do that?!” Kili asks as he gets up onto his elbows, too bewildered to worry about possible injuries. He looks over at a wild eyed Ori who is shaking his head as he gets up on his hands and knees, not bothering to get the leaves out of his hair.

“Do it again!” The smaller dwarf nearly squeaks. The young Durin nods as he sits himself up and tries to take a deep breath.

“O-okay,” Kili's voice shakes along with his hand as he holds it out between them. His brown eyes flit between his fingers, which are ready to snap again, and up to Ori who is watching him intently, then back down to his own fingers. He turns his face away as he closes his eyes, scrunching his face as he snaps loudly.

“Wow,” Ori sighs and finally the brunette cracks an eye open to see the flame dancing just above his his fingers. All either dwarfling can do is watch the tiny flame above Kili's fingers before Ori speaks again, just barely above a whisper.

“Kili, do you know what this means? It means that you're-”

“A fire bender,” Kili interrupts as the realization washes over him. As fast as he can, he's jumping up and running to the forge where his family works, Ori following closely behind him. Dwalin and Fili are just leaving for the training yard since it's been a slow day when Kili barrels right into his older brother, knocking them both to the ground.

“Kili get off!” Fili shouts as he tries to push his younger brother off but all Kili does is sit on his stomach, holding his fingers close to his face.

“Fili look!” He cries before he snaps and, just like before, a small flame appears over his fingers. Kili just watches the flame dance in his brother's blue eyes as he waits for his reaction.

“Kee,” Fili breathes before he knocks his brother off of him and hauls him up off the ground by his wrist and drags him in the direction of their home.

“We have to show mama!” The blonde cries out as they run through the streets, leaving little Ori to be walked home by Dwalin. Not that Ori minds, no matter what Nori says he's always thought Mister Dwalin was nice.

“Mama! Mama! MAMA!” Fili yells until he hears Dis coming down the stairs.

“Fili? Fili what's wrong? Who's hurt?” She asks worriedly as she gets to the bottom of the staircase, looking over both of her sons, relieved when she doesn't see any blood or any sign of injury.

“No one is hurt, mama! But look what Kili can do!” Fili says as he pushes Kili in front of him so Dis can get a better view. Kili licks his lips and holds his hand out towards his mama, snapping his fingers and watching as she stares at the little flame above his fingers.

“Oh Kili!” Their mama exclaims as she hits her knees and hugs her youngest son close to her. When she pulls back, she pulls Fili to her too and kisses both of their foreheads.

“My little fire bender and earth bender, I'm so proud of both of you,” she beams but it's dulled when she see's Kili looking down at the floor.

“What's wrong, Kili?”

“I wanted to be an earth bender like Fili, now we can't be great earth benders together or even practice together,” he pouts and she can see Fili looking guilty out of the corner of her blue eyes, like this was somehow his fault.

“Oh my little treasure, you two will still be great benders no matter what elements you had. Even if you had turned out to be an earth bender, you wouldn't have been able to practice with your brother. Fili is a few years ahead of you still and you aren't ready for what he's doing. But,” she interrupts her youngest when he opens his mouth to argue, “one day both of you will be able to spar together and maybe even against Mister Dwalin.”

“Yeah! And since you're a fire bender then Mister Dwalin won't be able to deflect our own attacks back at us! We can team up and beat him together!” Fili crows and his smile could light up their small cottage. Dis doesn't say anything about how Kili wouldn't be the first Durin fire bender that he's spared against but she decides to let her sons learn that for themselves.

Kili sniffles once and wipes his nose on his sleeve, something that makes Dis sigh inwardly because now there's snot on his tunic, and looks up at his older brother.

“We can beat him together?” Kili asks carefully.

“Yep! We'll beat him and be the best benders ever! So you gotta practice hard okay?” Fili asks as Kili nods quickly before there's a confused look on his face.

“But who will teach me since Mister Dwalin is an earth bender and Uncle is busy with the forge?” The brunette asks, his brown eyes going wide as he worries about never being able to train.

“I will. You're Uncle Thorin and Uncle Frerin taught me, so I will teach you,” Dis says and is nearly knocked over with the force of Kili's hug.

“Now go wash up boys, I need help with dinner,” she smiles and shoos them to get washed up. She twists one dark curl around her finger, her smile turning sad as her sons start discussing the best way to defeat Dwalin. They really were growing up too fast.

**Author's Note:**

> There might be more stories in this verse if I can come up with some more plots.
> 
> I have a tumblr [here](http://bofurs.co.vu/) if you want to drop by and say hello you're more than welcome to!


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